Wednesday, December 25, 2013

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 1

Title: Crucifixion

Artist: Franz von Stuck

Medium: Tempera on canvas

Size: 190 x 165 cm

Date: tbd.

Location: Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig.

A bit of modern folklore
asserts that the lyrics of the Christmas carol “The Twelve days of Christmas”
were written as a catechism song to help young Catholics learn their faith at a
time when practising Catholicism was criminalized in England (1558 - 1829). As summarized
by Wikipedia: “There is no primary evidence supporting this claim, and no
evidence that the claim is historical, or anything but a fanciful modern day
speculation.” Indeed, the theory seems of relatively recent origin, first
suggested by Canadian English teacher and hymnologist Hugh D. McKellar in a
short article published in 1979. Regardless, the idea that the lyrics of the
carol can represent something more than “merely an irreligious travesty” gives
the song a deeper, more resonant meaning. And with that in mind, “The Twelve
Days of Christmas”:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a
Partridge in a Pear Tree.

The symbolism speaks clearly
to the image of Jesus on the Cross. Jesus Christ, symbolized as a mother
partridge that feigns injury to decoy predators from helpless nestlings. And
the pear tree represented as cross.